Machine for setting heel and sole protectors.



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1,000,870. Patented Aug. 15, 1911. .0

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H. W. WINTER. MACHINE FOR SETTING HEEL AND SOLE PROTECTORS. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 23, 1900. RENEWED H OVZZB, 1 902. 1,000,870, 1 Patented Aug. 15, 1911.

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MACHINERY COMPANY, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, AND BOSTON, MASSACHU- SETTS, A. CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

MACHINE FOR SETTING HEEL AND SOLE PROTECTORS.

1,ooo,svo.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 15, 1911.

Application filed August 23, 1900, Serial No. 27,788. Renewed November 28, 1902. Serial No. 133,090.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY W. WINTER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lawrence, in the county of Essex, State of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Machines for Setting Heel and Sole Protectors, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

The invention relates to machines for driving or setting metallic reinforces or pro tectors into the heels and soles of boots and shoes for the purpose of retarding and equalizing the wear thereof. Extensive use is made in practice of reinforces or protectors formed of strips of metal bent into shape, these being applied by being driven edgewise into the leather of the toplift or sole until the edges thereof remaining visible are flush with the outer surface of the toplift or sole, or substantially so.

More especially the invention has relation to the devices which are employed in such machines for presenting and positioning the protectors or reinforces preliminary to the driving thereof, and assuring that the protectors or reinforces shall be driven in the proper position into the stock which receives the same.

The invention consists in the features which I will now proceed to describe with the aid of the accompanying drawings, in]

which latter I have illustrated the best form in which the invention has thus far been embodied.

The characteristic features of the invention will be particularly pointed out and distinctly defined in the claims at the close of this specification.

In the drawings,Figure 1 is a view in vertical section of portion of a protectorsetting machine having one embodiment of the invention applied thereto, only so much of the machine being shown as is necessary in order to properly disclose the nature and relations of the invention. Fig. 2 is an end elevation of certain of the parts in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a view in plan of the driver-block. Fig. at shows the said driver-block in section on the plane indicated by the dotted line 4-4 in Fig. '3. Fig. 5 shows a heel top-lift having a group of protectors inserted therein. Fig. 6 shows views of one of the protectors which are intended to be driven with Having reference to the drawings,1,

Fig. 6, designates a form of reinforce or protector which is well-known in the art, it being substantially of horse-shoe shape with one edge 2 thereof formed sufliciently thin to enable the same to penetrate readily the leather into which the re-inforce or protector is driven, while the other edge 3 thereof is somewhat thicker. Edge 2 may be termed the entering edge of the device, while edge 3, which is exposed at the face of the work into which the reinforce or protector is driven, and primarily receives the wear, may be termed the wear-receiving edge. Hereafter the term protector will be used in referring to the device 1. It will be understood that the foregoing description applies only to one of the various well known forms of protectors, although the invention is equally serviceable in connection with a variety of other more or less varying forms of protectors of the same general U-shape. The showing in Fig. 6 therefore will be understood as being merely illustrative of the general type of the device that is referred to herein as a protector.

Fig. 5 shows in plan the top-lift 1 of a heel for a boot or shoe having a series of protectors driven into the same. In this case three protectors are shown, this being a number that frequently is employed in practice, and they occupy positions in the top-lift at one side of the longitudinal axis of the lift and stand approximately radial with reference to the curved rear portion of the lift.

It will be obvious that in being driven the protectors have to be so held and guided as to cause the entering edge of each to rest on or strike the surface of the leather fairly, and also so as to cause the protectors to take the proper position in the stock. If the protector should become tilted into an inclined position in becoming driven the work would be spoiled, while if the pro- I tector should become misplaced and not driven in the proper position, the appearance of the work would be injured. Protectors of the type illustrated in Fig. 6 are essentially U-shaped, and heretofore in machines devisedfor the purpose of automatically driving or setting the same, they have been guided and positioned means of a rib or fin provided in the machine adjacent the driving point in the latter on to the exterior of which rib or fin the protector has been caused to slide, the said rib or fin passing into the opening of the protector and constituting an internal guide for the latter while being driven. The use of this internal guide has been found disadvantageous in practice, since it has necessitated the use of a driving pin or driver made U-shaped-in cross section at its driving end in order to clear the said rib or fin while forcing the protector into the stock. A U-shaped driver is frail and subject to injury, and it has been necessary in machines employing the same to replace the drivers repeatedly. The breakages and other injuries to the drivers interfere with the use of the machines and lessen their capacity, and productiveness, while considerable expense has been entailed in replacing the drivers by new ones.

My present invention simplifies the machines which are employed for driving or setting protectors, dispensing entirely with the internal guides located at the driving points in the machines, and enabling the U- shaped drivers to be replaced by solid drivers, when desired. These last are practically free from liability to breakage or injury in the use of the machine, and hence rarely, if ever, require to be replaced.

In the drawings, one of the drivers is shown at 5 Fig. 1. The number of drivers employed in a machine may vary in practice, but inasmuch as usually, in the case of toplifts of heels, three protectors are driven in a group as indicated in Fig. 5, it may be stated that three drivers 5 ordinarily will be employed in a machine used in driving or setting protectors into toplifts.

The drivers 5, 5, are secured to a driverblock 6, Fig. 1. They extend downwardly from the latter. The driver-block 6 is ap plied to horizontal guideways 61 provided on the forwardly projecting portion 7 of the plunger 8, the latter moving vertically in suitable guideways 81 which are provided in the head 9 of the machine, the said plunger being actuated in any suitable or approved manner, as for instance by means of a crank-pin 10 carried by an operating shaft 11, the said crank-pin being represented as furnished with a roll 12 working in a. transverse slot 121, with which the plunger 8 is furnished.

As indicated in Fig. 1 the driver 5is solid. For the purpose of conveying the protectors toward the place in the machine at which the drivers are arranged to act suitable guides or raceways are provided as at 13, 13. These correspond in number with the drivers, and in practice protectors are applied to the raceways by hand or otherwise as preferred, so as to furnish the necessary supply. Herein the raceways are shown constituted by strips which are suitably supported in proper positionin the machlne. A series of protectors is caused to straddle one edge of each of the saidraceways.

15 is a block which is mounted in the machine in position below the drivers 5, 5, it being formed with a series. of driver-passages 16, 16, through which the protectors are driven into the stock which is to receive the same. The said stock is held in contact with the lower surface of the said block 15 at the time of driving. The block is shown carried by the head of the machine, and beneath the same is shown a work-supporting post 17, upon the upper end of which. is mounted a work-rest 171 to receive the piece of stock which is to have protectors driven into the same. In practice, after the stock has been placed on the work-rest 171 at the top of the work-supporting post 17, the latter is forced upwardly so as to compress the stock against the under surface of the block 15. I have not shown the means of forcing the post 17 upwardly, inasmuch as the same forms no part of the invention and any convenient means of communicating vertical movement to the post 17 for the purpose of thus compressing the stock 'and of afterward releasing the latter may be employed in practice.

In the illustrated machine, the raceways 13, 13, terminate a short distance above the block 15, and between their lower ends and the said block are interposed short sections 131, 131 of raceways which I term transfer raceways. These transfer raceways are slightly inclined toward the driver-passages 16. They are attached to a slide 132, which is mounted in horizontal guideways 133 133 with which a. forwardly projecting part 1341 is provided, and are capable of being moved into alinement with the raceways 13 13 and the driver-passages 16, 16, so as to bridge the space intervening between the former and the latter. See Fig. 1. In the position of the transfer raceways which is represented in Fig. 1 a protector on the lower end of a raceway 13 when freed from restraint can slide down the corresponding transfer raceway 131 into the driver-passage 16 at the lower end of said transfer raceway.

The block 6 to which drivers 5 are attached is furnished with a bevel face at 62, Fig. 1 which in the descent of plunger 8 encounters a like bevel face 63 on head 9. Thereby the block 6 and drivers 5 are forced forward from their retracted position in Fig, 1 into a position in line above the driver passages 16. The sides of block 6 extend forward and contact with the vertical rear faces of arms 135 depending from slide 132 and thereby as the drivers advance in their descending movement the transfer raceways are pushed forward out of the way. After the drivers begin to ascend, the transfer raceways and drivers are moved back into the posit-ion in which they are shown in F ig. 1, by means of one or more springs as 64:, Fig. 1, which are connected with one or both arms 135. The passage of the protectors down the transfer raceways is controlled by upper and lower escapement plates 21 and 31, the former being operated by a lever 22 working in conjunction with a cam-shaped portion 23 of plunger 8, and the latter being pressed back by slide 132 in the rearward movement of the latter. Springs 24 34 hold the escapement plates pressed forward normally,

Vhile I have been particular to describe quite fully the details of the mechanism to which reference has been made thus far, it should be understood that I have done so merely to aid in the understanding of the nature and relations of the actual invention which I will now proceed to present. Each driver-passage 16 corresponds closely in shape with the exterior of a protector 1, and is in the shape of a simple hole or passage through the driver-block. The inside guide fitting into the opening of the protector is omitted, the driver-passage being formed to fit said exterior and to give the protector the required position for entering the stock into which it is to be driven. See Fig. .5. I find, however that with the said guide omitted there is a tendency for the descending protector to tilt forward on leaving the lower end of the transfer raceway 131, so that the back or convex end of the protector, that is to say, the closed end thereof is likely to descend first into the hole or driver-passage. This is due to the greater weight of the closed side or back of the protector, and the increased momentum which such closed side or back acquires during the descent of the inclined transfer raceway. The protector as it nears the lower end of the transfer raceway normally occupies a more or less oblique position it being restrained in great part by the manner in which it is fitted tothe transfer raceway, but on leaving the said lower end it is free to assume the position which its lack of balance and the momentum of its back or convex end tend to give it. If now, the protector having dropped into the driver-passage on its convex end instead of on its entering edge, the driver descends, the result will be a failure to insert the protector properly into the work or stock, the stock will be damaged, and injury to the machine including breakage, will usually take place.

In accordance with my invention I provide a guard adjacent the driver-passage, and above the latter, in such position that when the transfer-raceway is slid rearward so as to register with the driver-passage, the

relative position of the guard with respect to the lower end of the transfer raceway will be such as to cause the protector in passing off the said lower end of the transfer-raceway to assume a position which will cause its entering edge to come to rest flatly and squarely upon the surface of the stock.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention the block 15 in which the driverpassages are formed is made higher on the rear side of the driver-passages as at 151, and is shaped to form concavities which partially surround and are concentric with the lower ends of the transfer raceways when the latter have been moved inwardly into the position which enables them to conduct protectors from the fixed raceways to the driver-passages. See Figs. 1 and 3. I11- asmuch as the said concavities surround or inclose the back edges of the transfer-raceways, it follows that as the protector descends the transfer-raceway its closed end or back makes contact with the guard aforesaid, which holds the said end back, causing the protector to drop from the end of the transfer-raceway in the natural position thereof, that is coming to rest squarely on its entering edge upon the stock.

18 designates a small spring detentwhich is provided in each driver passage 16 to arrest the protector within said driver-passage and hold it in the latter until the driver 5 in descending forces the protector into the stock that is intended to receive the same.

I do not lay claim herein to a fixed raceway or raceways, a cooperating detent to control the discharge of protectors therefrom, a fixed block having one or more driver-passages therein to receive the protector or protectors to be driven, one or more drivers, a movable transfer raceway section, and means controlled by movement of the transfer raceway to withdraw the de tent when the said raceway is in operative position, inasmuch as 'these features are claimed in my prior application for United States Letters Patent for machines for setting heel and sole protectors filed May 22, 1899, Serial No. 717,674.

What I claim is 1. Protector-setting mechanism comprising essentially a raceway fitting Within the openings of the protectors and down which a protector slides, ablock having a driverpassage shaped to fit the exterior of a protector and in which a protector is received from the raceway, and an exterior guard in connection with the lower portion of said raceway adjacent the driver-passage operating to prevent tipping of the protector as it enters the said driver-passage, and a driver, substantially as described.

2. Protector-setting mechanism comprising essentially a driver, a raceway fitting within the openings of the protectors and down which a protector slides, a block having a driver-passage receiving the protector from the lower end of said raceway and shaped to fit the exterior of the protector, and a guard at the entrance to said driverpassage partially inclosing the delivery end of the raceway and serving to prevent tipping of the protector as it enters the driverpassage, substantially as described.

3. Protector-setting mechanism comprising, essentially, a guide or raceway for the protectors on their way to the driving point, a block having a driver-passage shaped to fit the exterior of a protector and within which a protector is received from the guide or raceway, a guard in connection with said raceway and driver-passage operating against the exterior of the protector to prevent tipping of the same as it enters the driverpassage, and a driver, substantially as described.

4:. In combination, a solid block having a I driver-passage with closed sides shaped to fit the exterior of a non-circular bent strip protector to be driven, and by engagement therewith prevent axial twisting or turning of the protector in being driven, a guide or raceway delivering a protector in line with the said driver-passage, into the end of the latter, entering edge first, and a solid and ungrooved driver entering the driver-passage from the same end thereof as the protector.

5. In combination, an inclined guide or raceway for bent protectors, a block having a driver-passage into which the protector passes from the delivery end of the said guide or raceway and provided with means acting against the exterior of a protector to deflect the entering protector into position for being driven, and a driver.

6. In combination, a guide or raceway for protectors, a block having a driver-passage and provided with means engaging with the closed portion of an entering protector to turn said protector into position for being driven, a yielding detent acting against the rounded back of the protector, and a driver.

7. Protector-setting mechanism comprising, essentially, a guide or raceway for protectors on their way to the driving-point, a

block having a driver-passage, and means to deflect a partly tilted protector into erect. position as it passes from the delivery end of the guide or raceway before it lands in the driver-passage, and ayielding detent to detain the protector in the said driverpassage.

8. Protector-setting mechanism compris ing, essentially, a raceway for protectors, a block having at the delivery end of said raceway a driver-passage which positions by external contact solely a protector passing into the same from the delivery end of the said raceway, and a check to restrain the protector fromtipping as it enters the driver-passage.

9. Protector-setting mechanism comprising, essentially, an inclined guide or raceway for protectors, protector-feeding devices releasing a protector to slide along the said inclined guide or raceway, and a driverblock, having a driver-passage into which the protector discharges from the raceway and provided with means independent of said guide or raceway to deflect a tilted entering protector into erect position before it lands.

10. In combination, an inclined guide or raceway for bent protectors, a block having a driver-passage into which a protector passes from the delivery endof the said guide or raceway and provided with means independent of the said guide or raceway to deflect the entering protector into position for being driven, and a driver.

11. Protector-setting mechanism comprising, essentially, a guide or raceway for protectors on their way to the driving-point, a block having a driver-passage and means independent of said guide or raceway to deflect a tilted protector into erect position to be driven as it passes from the delivery end of the guide or raceway into the said driverpassage, and a-yielding detent to detain the protector in the said driver-passage.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

HENRY W. WINTER.

Witnesses:

CHAS. F. RANDALL, LEPINE HALL Bron.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

